Mayor Bill Finch talks during his community cabinet meeting with residents of the upper East Side at Vazzy's Brick Oven restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday October 15, 2013.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Mayor Bill Finch talks during his community cabinet meeting with residents of the upper East Side at Vazzy's Brick Oven restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday October 15, 2013.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Mayor Bill Finch talks during his community cabinet meeting with residents of the upper East Side at Vazzy's Brick Oven restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday October 15, 2013.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Bridgeport Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi talks during Mayor Bill Finch's community cabinet meeting with residents of the upper East Side at Vazzy's Brick Oven restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday October 15, 2013.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Citizens share their concerns as Mayor Bill Finch talks during his community cabinet meeting with residents of the upper East Side at Vazzy's Brick Oven restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday October 15, 2013.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Citizens share their concerns as Mayor Bill Finch talks during his community cabinet meeting with residents of the upper East Side at Vazzy's Brick Oven restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday October 15, 2013.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Mayor Bill Finch talks during his community cabinet meeting with residents of the upper East Side at Vazzy's Brick Oven restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday October 15, 2013.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi said people should call the police when they see suspicious activity.

"I always say this, but don't hesitate to call," he said.

"They don't come," complained Callaway of the police, with residents nodding their heads in agreement and echoing her words.

Jim Capuzziello, president of the Success Village board, said he once called right as a drug deal was taking place in the complex, which houses over 900 families and is one of the city's top 10 taxpayers.

"When we call, we have problems getting someone to come around," Capuzziello said. "I waited two hours once when I saw a drug bust going down. We have drugs going on in Court A. We said it one time to an officer and they said, `Well, they all do pot.' "

Nardozzi , who looked surprised by the man's words, said when things like that happen, residents need to call him directly.

"This is something I need to know," he said. "That's something I never want to hear -- that I call the police and they don't come."

He emphasized several times during the meeting that if he doesn't know a problem exists, he can't fix it -- as residents voiced concern after concern about break-ins being reported and police not showing up for hours, if at all.

Nardozzi did note, however, that the department has limited resources. From about 2 p.m. to 3 a.m., all of his officers do is respond to calls, which is probably why it takes so long for them to respond in some cases, he said.

Residents also complained about one of Finch's pet peeves. Trees planted years ago, which the mayor has said for years were the wrong kind to plant along streets, are now tearing up sidewalks.

Willie Wilson complained that only half of Remington Street was repaved recently and the street could use new sidewalks.

"We will never have enough money to replace all the sidewalks," Finch told the group of about two dozen people, but he added that the city could try a procedure to flatten the area around the tree. That's a process Finch learned about recently during a mayors' conference, he said.

Other concerns were blight and the need for more recycling bins.

But the meeting was not all about bad news.

Finch announced that his economic development staff helped find a new operator for Food World, the supermarket that closed in a plaza on lower Huntington Turnpike several years ago. It will be hiring soon, he said.

Residents were also happy to hear about plans to create an all-inclusive playground at Beardsley Park that would be accessible to children with physical disabilities. The playground will be named after a boy named A.J., who used a motorized wheelchair until his death at the age of 11.

A new park would also be created on Virginia Avenue, near the Nob Hill Condominiums, at a location where the state once proposed to place a juvenile detention center for girls. That site would include a dog park, the mayor said.

Finch also renewed his pledge to open Pleasure Beach in the spring.

He said the two water taxis ordered by the city and paid for with federal funds should be up and running by then. One would be named the Gustav Whitehead taxi, after the Bridgeport man who many say flew an airplane two years before the Wright Brothers. The other would be named for Lewis Latimer, the man who helped Thomas Edison manufacture the first working light bulb. Latimer moved to Bridgeport as an adult to work as a draftsman.